Man who shot and killed Kenyan student in US jailed for life
An American couple that shot and killed a Kenyan-born man in Eugene, Oregon was sentenced on Thursday.
Regis Deray Kindred, 30, and his wife, Kailee Von Foster, 29, were sentenced in the killing of 21-year-old Alex Oyombe Gradin on May 4, 2019 in the parking lot adjacent in Oregon, near Lake Community College where he was a student.
Kindred, who on February 12 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was on Thursday, sentenced to life in prison. He will only be eligible for parole after 25 years.
Foster also pleaded guilty on the same day to second-degree manslaughter after admitting to being the getaway driver.
Motive of the shooting was intentional
She was sentenced to three years and three months in prison.
Police say the motive of the shooting was intentional and gang-related but emphasised that Gradin had no affiliation with or connection to any gang activity.
They said Kindred is a member of the Rollin 60s gang, and that he thought Alex was a member of a rival Hoover Gang when he saw him on the parking lot near the club.
The couple were driving around looking for a Hoover gang member to attack, investigators said.
Alex, who was born in Kenya and adopted into the Gradin family as a baby, had just left Taylor’s Bar and Grill when he was shot.
At the sentencing, both Kindred and Foster apologised to Alex’s family, saying he did not intend to kill their son.
“I didn’t mean to kill your son, I apologise for that,” Kindred said. “I apologise from the bottom of my heart … I am so terribly sorry,” Foster told Alex’s family.